The one-year graduate degree in business analytics will help students hone skills in business process analytics and/or customer analytics, depending on which area they choose to specialize.

Students have the option of two program specializations or tracks. One focuses more attention on data base concepts and applications (business process analytics). The other focuses more attention on marketing research practices and consumer-centric analytics (customer analytics).

The degree is a 33-credit-hour, two-term (four modules) program. The first graduates will complete the program in May 2015. No full-time work experience is required for admission.

“‛Big Data’ continue to have an impact on how organizations conduct business as a whole and in the skill sets that employees are expected to have in order to be productive,” said Hettie Tabor, director of the new program. “By investing in one additional year of education, SMU Cox M.S.B.A. students will meet that demand with the knowledge and skills that will allow them to launch a successful career in IT, marketing, operations and consulting fields.”

Potential candidates for the new degree program include B.B.A. and non-business students who are working toward degrees in economics, math, engineering and science; or graduates who have completed such degrees.

Tabor, a managing director at Accenture, has worked in IT for 25 years, with more than 19 years of practical experience in analytics and SAP. Tabor built and served as the Accenture SAP Business Analytics Global Practice Lead for 15 years and has a wealth of technical and project management knowledge in the analytics, business intelligence, in memory computing, data mining, predictive analytics, business planning and consolidations, and data management space.